Wolumla NBNCo satellite facility nears completion

FINISHING touches are being made at the NBNCo ground satellite station at Wolumla.

The Woluma NBNCo ground station is nearing completion.

FINISHING touches are being made at the NBNCo ground satellite station at Wolumla.

A photograph of the ground station was sent to the BDN by one of NBNCo’s Wolumla neighbours Ian Gordon.

Although the Wanatta Lane facility looks nearly complete from the outside with the four antennas and service building in place, a spokesperson said there is still work to do.

“The fourth antenna recently went up.

“There’s a little bit of external landscaping to be done, but externally it’s near finishing stage.

“However, there is still a lot testing and commissioning to be done until the antennas are ready on the ground at the site and that will probably go through until the end of July,” a spokesperson said.

The ground station will be not fully operational until the NBNCo’s satellites are launched in 2015.

NBNCo is building 10 satellite ground stations and plans to install two 13.5-metre ViaSat satellite antennas at eight facilities and four antennas at two of the facilities, one of which is Wolumla.

Other ground stations are Bourke and Broken Hill in NSW, Ceduna in South Australia, Geraldton and Geeveston in Tasmania, Waroona, Carnarvon and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and Roma in Queensland.